I went to a Penn State-Alabama game once, about 1980. We were amazed when people wandered in halfway through the first quarter and the stadium emptied halfway through the fourth.

Of course, it was 1980.

Other teams that have losing seasons still have students that stay through the whole game and cheer for the seniors at the end of the third quarter. This could be a lead in to the Athletic department cutting back on how many seats are available to students. They could make more money with higher prices and required contributions that way.

(Maybe that's the difference between a nation and a family...
Hides)

I've seen buttons and stickers in the SEC.

That's exactly what everybody's been saying for a couple of years now.

There are something like 10,000 people on the waiting list at Alabama for football tickets. I have 4 season tickets and only go to one game. All the rest are paid for before the season, including paying the Tide Pride allotment, by someone else. We just finished texting about SEC championship and NC/bowl game tickets a few minutes ago as I've already got the order form for those. It's a really big deal here....

While I'm not in any way trying to compare Big Ten to SEC (because I've attended both), I will say that Penn State football is unlike many other teams. PSU fans are into their bowl games (though, not for the next couple of years) and everything that goes along with being a major team. To assume that someone who went to Penn State, or any other major school in the Big Ten, has no idea what football is all about on the grand scale is a bit presumptuous. You should see the looks my Alumni Association gets from others of another SEC school when we cheer on our team every weekend. They almost can't believe our passion.

My remarks were aimed at ASTalumna06 who has not been able to easily grasp the student ticket/block seating arrangement at Alabama, how difficult tickets are to acquire and what lengths students have gone to over the years to sit by blocks. Penn State has a great tradition (though most Bama fans hate PSU almost as much as they hate Notre Dame) and I'm sure their fans are very dedicated. I just doubt the student ticket/seating situation is on the level of ours....

Southern vs. Northern Football
 

Southern vs. Northern Football :cool:

Stadium Size:
NORTH: College football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
SOUTH: High school football stadiums hold 20,000 people.

Fathers:
NORTH: Expect their daughters to understand Sylvia Plath.
SOUTH: Expect their daughters to understand pass interference.

Campus Decor:
NORTH: Statues of founding fathers.
SOUTH: Statues of Heisman trophy winners.

Homecoming Queen:
NORTH: Also a physics major.
SOUTH: Also Miss America.

Cheerleaders:
NORTH: If you are coordinated, you make the varsity squad.
SOUTH: You begin cheer camp at age two, complete with ballet, dance, & gymnastic training.

Heroes:
NORTH: Rudy Guiliani
SOUTH: Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant

Getting Tickets:
NORTH: 5 days before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus and purchase tickets.
SOUTH: 5 months before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus and put name on waiting list for tickets.

Friday Classes After a Thursday Night Game:
NORTH: Students and teachers not sure they're going to the game, because they have classes on Friday.
SOUTH: Teachers cancel Friday classes because they don't want to see the few hung over students that might actually make it to class.

Parking:
NORTH: An hour before game time, the University opens the campus for game parking.
SOUTH: RVs sporting their school flags begin arriving on Wednesday for the weekend festivities. The really faithful arrive on Tuesday.

Game Day:
NORTH: A few students party in the dorm and watch ESPN on TV.
SOUTH: Every student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast, and rushes over to where ESPN is broadcasting "Game Day Live" to get on camera and wave to the idiots up north who wonder why "Game Day Live" is never broadcast from their campus.

Tailgating:
NORTH: Raw meat on a grill, beer with lime in it, listening to local radio station with truck tailgate down.
SOUTH: 30-foot custom pig-shaped smoker fires up at dawn. Cooking accompanied by live performance by "Dave Matthews' Band," who come over during breaks and ask for a hit off bottle of bourbon.

Getting to the Stadium:
NORTH: You ask, "Where's the stadium?" When you find it, you walk right in.
SOUTH: When you're near it, you'll hear it. On game day, it becomes the state's third largest city.

Concessions:
NORTH: Drinks served in a paper cup, filled to the top with soda.
SOUTH: Drinks served in a plastic cup, with the home team's mascot on it, filled less than half way with soda, to ensure enough room for bourbon.

When National Anthem is Played:
NORTH: Stands are less than half full, and less than half of them stand up.
SOUTH: 100,000 fans, all standing, sing along in perfect four-part harmony.

The Smell in the Air After the First Score:
NORTH: Nothing changes.
SOUTH: Fireworks, with a touch of bourbon.

Commentary (Male):
NORTH: "Nice play."
SOUTH: "Dammit, you slow sumbitch - tackle him and break his legs."

Commentary (Female):
NORTH: "My, this certainly is a violent sport."
SOUTH: "Dammit, you slow sumbitch - tackle him and break his legs."

Announcers:
NORTH: Neutral and paid.
SOUTH: Announcer harmonizes with the crowd in the fight song, with a tear in his eye because he is so proud of his team.

After the Game:
NORTH: The stadium is empty way before the game ends.
SOUTH: Another rack of ribs goes on the smoker. While somebody goes to the nearest liquor store for more bourbon, planning begins for next week's game.

There's an old joke that may help to explain how intense it is here.

A man and his family are at the Alabama-Auburn game waiting for it to start. An elderly lady comes along and sits next to them by herself. He figures her husband is getting drinks, food, etc and will be along shortly. Time passes and no one comes to sit by her. The seat remains empty. The game goes on and she cheers for Bama and they all high five etc as Alabama continues to play well. Eventually, he just has to find out why no one is with her and there is an out of the norm empty seat. So he asks if she's by herself. She says, yes, my husband has passed away so I'm by myself. He asks her if there was no friend or relative who would have liked the ticket since they are so hard to come by. She said oh yes, sure, but they are all at his funeral.

I asked a simple question... if the students don't bring their fraternity/sorority flags, badges, shirts, skirts, pom poms, and megaphones with their letters plastered all over them, how would anyone be able to enforce the "no organizations may sit together" policy?

That's it.

If you've explained that already, then please point it out to me.

Are you saying that because it's so difficult to get tickets, that if the blocks were eliminated, no fraternity/sorority members would have tickets to begin with? That would make sense, because then my question wouldn't even apply.

But if that's not it, as I see it, people could save seats but claim that they were just saving them for their friends.

They would no longer have the guaranteed block/area and the security people would keep then from doing so. If they all come together at the same time and sit together, that would be OK. It's the saving/marking/roping off of blocks/areas of seats that would be banned. Tickets are sold before the season starts and all all sold out before the first game. So tickets could not be withheld as the student already has them. Though I suppose they could program the scanners to not allow anyone with a student ticket in the game but that would apply to all students not jsut ones belonging to certain organizations.

Ok, this makes sense. Thank you! :)

Oh, no. I'm aware of who your remarks were aimed at. I'm not trying to argue and I most certainly don't always agree with ASTalumna06 about things but, I have to agree with her on this one. Also, I think that most of the "Southern" traditions that TStevens posted could actually be used for both North and South. Up until the whole scandal, I would say that Joe Paterno was to Northern football what Bear Bryant is to Southern football. Also, Penn State seats way more than 20,000 students (something like over 100,000). I hate Ohio State with all my might but, they are pretty serious about their football too. I mean Ohio State and Michigan have their "polar plunge" the night before their rival game. PSU always went against Michigan State for the Land Grant trophy.

I'm at a major SEC school that is known for its love of (and ranking in) football but, I can honestly say that Penn State rivals them for fan support.

I used to live very close to Northwestern's stadium, and virtually every home game they play has more away fans than home fans, just because every Big 10 school has a large contingent of Chicago alumni. But let me tell you, OSU fans are really special in their level of obnoxiousness. I don't know what it is about them, but they manage to be louder, drunker, incapable of understanding how the purple line works, and generally annoying to a degree that no other group of fans seems to manage.

This has nothing to do with anything else in this thread, I'm just whining.

You know a thread has succeeded when it has turned into a northern vs southern football war.